Seth MacFarlane and 20th Century Fox: Stop making rape jokes and using sexual abuse-based humor on your shows.

I was watching the Family Guy episode "Friends Without Benefits," which aired on December 9th, 2012, and was absolutely appalled by the repeated rape jokes used in the episode--Quagmire giving Meg roofies, saying he should "rape it forward," and the depiction of an anthropomorphic houseplant raping another plant that had been given roofies (I turned off the episode at this point. According to a review of the episode online, the plant then attacks Stewie.). The video above from a different episode ("Dial Meg for Murder") includes graphic depictions of an anthropomorphic bull and Meg raping Peter. Seth MacFarlane's shows Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show consistently make jokes of these types.

Considering that 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men are victims of rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse in the United States alone, it is irresponsible and extremely disrespectful to treat such a prevalent, horrible crime as a laughable subject. Viewing content like this can be disturbing and emotionally triggering to survivors of such horrible crimes. In addition, jokes like this contribute to a culture that considers rape a laughable offense, not a serious crime with serious emotional consequences.

As the creator of Family Guy, MacFarlane should be held responsible for the hurtful and disrespectful content of his show. Regardless of the pressure to keep such a popular show on the air, the 20th Century Fox has the responsibility to influence what is put on television.

We demand that MacFarlane and Fox stop using rape humor in their shows and become more conscious of their portrayal of sexual assault and abuse is harmful and hurtful. We demand that MacFarlane and Fox apologize to the tens of millions of survivors of rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse in the United States as well as countless other survivors in other countries.

Here are more clips of rape jokes in Family Guy (sorry for the bad quality of some):

Stop making rape jokes and using sexual abuse-based humor on your shows and issue an apology to the tens of millions of survivors of rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse for the insensitive and hurtful content on your shows.